The Institute for Radiology and Interventional Therapy offers a wide range of diagnostics and therapies meeting the highest quality standards. Headed up by Senior Consultant Professor Joachim Wagner, it is part of the Vivantes Hospital in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. A combination of the latest medical technology and extensive medical experience is particularly important in a radiology department – Professor Wagner and his team have this technology, possess a wealth of experience and have achieved an outstanding level of success.

The Institute for Radiology and Interventional Therapy offers all of the basic radiological examinations, e.g. X-ray, ultrasound, Doppler sonography, CT and MRI – both with and without a contrast medium. Imaging enables Professor Wagner and his team to see every point of the human body and to look for irregularities. Radiologists aim to minimise the impact on the body in all diagnostic procedures. During X-rays and CT scans, exposure to the rays that project the images is kept as low as possible. Ultrasound examinations, in which the images are produced by completely harmless ultrasound waves, are especially suitable for pregnant women and children. Doppler, or duplex, sonography is a special ultrasound scan that measures the speed at which blood is flowing through the veins and arteries, providing information about blocked or narrowed blood vessels – in other words whether there are any circulatory disorders. The Institute for Radiology and Interventional Therapy also uses blood vessel imaging known as angiography. It is used to identify not only circulatory disorders but also changes to blood vessels, e.g. protrusions in the artery wall, known as aneurysms. An ultra-modern 64-slice CT is used to obtain cross-sectional images of every part of the body. In cardiac CTs, this technology is used to view any blocked coronary arteries and veins, and to identify life-threatening situations. Other procedures using ultra-modern-slice CT are the CT colonography (scan of the intestine), CT enteroclysis (scan of the small intestine), CT-controlled biopsy (removal of tissue for analysis) and the establishment of special access to the body, e.g. for chemotherapy (port) and for pain therapy.

Interventional therapies

Professor Wagner and his team offer all of the major interventional therapies that are based on modern radiology. Radiological interventions can be vascular (in a blood vessel) or non-vascular. There are many kinds of vascular interventions, e.g. stent implantation, thrombolysis (dissolving of clots in blood vessels) and implantation of chemotherapy and radioactive material for destroying, in particular, inoperable tumours such as tumours and metastases in the liver or bile ducts. In the abdominal area, stents (wafer-thin metal tubes in the form of a mesh) are also implanted, for example, in the oesophagus (to enable food to be swallowed more easily), stomach, intestine and bile ducts (as drainage) and feeding tubes may be inserted.

The Institute for Radiology and Interventional Therapy, led by Professor Wagner, boasts the most important elements required of a 21st century hospital: the latest medical technology, quality standards of the highest level, doctors with many years of experience, a broad range of specific diagnostics and treatments and a focus on international patient groups.